HURON – A school rich in athletic history, made a little history Thursday night at the Huron Arena.

Tea Area is headed to its first girls’ state basketball tournament after grabbing a 62-37 win over Mobridge-Pollock in Class A SoDak 16 action.

“It’s a great kind of monkey off your back a little bit, plus all the hard work these girls put in throughout the years,” said Tea Area coach Adam Schorzmann. “We’ve come close a few different times. This is our fourth time in the SoDak 16, and I thought that we were absolutely ready and focused.”

Mobridge-Pollock was also ready, taking an 8-7 lead after the opening quarter. That’s when things changed in a dramatic way. Tea Area outscored the Tigers 22-4 in the second period to break things open. Mara Grant worked inside for 14 points to fuel the surge.

“They made a run in the second quarter where we had some rotation issues and some matchup issues, and the Grant girl really got it going and had a great quarter,” said Mobridge-Pollock coach Stephen Hettick.” And that’s the game. You know every basketball game is a game of runs and that’s when they made theirs, and that’s when they made their hay and got it done.”

With 6-foot-1 senior Katie Vasecka drawing a lot of attention, Grant was able to get behind the Mobridge-Pollock defense to get high-percentage shots in the lane.

“She really got it going in that second quarter,” Hettick said. “When you have to focus your defensive efforts on a girl like Vasecka, sometimes that really allows others to get it going and that’s kind of what happened.”

While Grant was powering the Tea Area offense to a 27-12 halftime advantage, Schorzmann said it was the other end of the floor that helped to fuel the crucial quarter.

“We knew that we matched up really well with them defensively” Schorzmann said. “I thought turnovers led to some points for us and then it really kind of opened the hoop up a little bit. We took that good 15-point lead into that third quarter.”

Matchups were a key throughout the contest as the smaller Tigers had to deal with a size disadvantage at nearly every position.

“We’re not used to obviously a 6-1 girl,” said Mobridge-Pollock forward Charley Henderson. “Our strong suit this year has been defense, definitely, and the matchups weren’t lined up quite well.”

Still, the Tigers battled the entire way. A case in point was Heidi Olson, who at 5-foot-2 was the smallest player on the floor, yet led Mobridge-Pollock with nine rebounds.

“It was really hard, honestly,” Olson said of grabbing those rebounds. “I kind of pictured where the ball was going to go and then boom, I just went after it. I was just like well, I’m going to jump hard, hopefully I get it.”

Olson, who is heading to Wyoming next season to run cross country and track, also had six points and to go along with three steals.

“We’ve seen it time and time again,” Hettick said. “She’s a just a worker. She’s a battler and just goes and gets it. She’s really a spark and we’re going to miss that.”

Henderson finished with 11 points, while Tegan Konold added 10 for the Tigers.

“I’m super proud of the girls,” Hettick said. “They played hard, they played aggressive, stuck to the game plan and they never quit. And that’s all you can ask. They did a great job and I’m proud of them.”

Grant led four players in double figures for the Titans with 20 points. Vasecka contributed 18. Tea Area will play Flandreau in the final opening round game of the State A Tournament Thursday in Brookings.

Meanwhile, the Tigers fell short in their quest to get to their first state tourney since 2011.

“It’s kind of hard every year, you get to the Sweet 16, you lose, but at least we made it,” Olson said. “We’re really proud of the team.”

Things definitely appear to be trending in the right direction for Mobridge-Pollock, which finished its season with a 17-5 record.

“This has been our best season in over 10 years,” Henderson said. “We’re still working. We’re going to get there some day.”

The team made another stride to that goal with their effort against a Tea Area team that owns wins over six Class AA opponents this year and will be heading to Class AA next season.

“It was a great year,” Hettick said, “and we just look forward to moving up, getting better and taking the next step next year.”

MOBRIDGE-POLLOCK (17-5): Reagan Weisbeck 1 0-0 3, Tegan Konold 4 2-3 10, Heidi Olson 2 2-2 6, Charley Henderson 5 1-3 11, Faith Heil 3 1-2 7. Totals 15-47 6-10 37.

TEA AREA (19-4): Haidyn West 3 2-2 10, Mara Grant 8 6-10 22, Ellie Clayberg 4 1-1 10, Katie Vasecka 8 2-2 18, Jaycie Babb 1 0-0 2. Totals 24-55 11-15 62.

Mobridge-Pollock 8 12 26 37

Tea Area 7 27 40 62

3-point field goals – Weisbeck; West (2), Clayberg. Total fouls – Mobridge-Pollock 17; Tea Area 15. Rebounds – Mobridge-Pollock 31 (Olson 9); Tea Area 38 (Vasecka 15, Grant 9). Turnovers – Mobridge-Pollock 17; Tea Area 12. Assists – Mobridge-Pollock 6; Tea Area 10 (Clayberg 5). Steals – Mobridge-Pollock 9 (Olson 3, Weisbeck 2, Heil 2); Tea Area 7 (Babb 3, Grant 2, Vasecka 2).